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.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlAbner Buell strolled into his bedroom, hopefully to end boredom with a few hours of sleep, but as he lay down in bed, a new game flashed into his mind.Why was he wasting his time pulling the strings on meaningless little individuals or small nations that didn't amount to anything anyway? There were big things he could do.The biggest.Nuclear war.How about the End of the World game?That was bang with a bang.He lay in bed for a while thinking about it.Of course, if there was an all-out nuclear war, he would die too.He considered that for a while, then whispered his decision in the darkness of his bedroom."So what?" he said softly.Everybody had to die sometime and nuclear destruction was preferable to being bored to death.At last a game worthy of his talents.The targets: the United States and Russia.The goal: to get one of them to begin World War III.He fell asleep with a smile on his lips and a warming thought in his heart.At least if he started World War III, that plucky Brit bitch, Pamela Thrushwell, would get hers too.sChapter FourUsually Harold W.Smith gave Remo his assignments by scrambler telephone through a maze of connections and secret numbers that had in the past included Dial-A-Prayer, Off-Track Betting offices in New York City, and a meat-packing plant in Raleigh, North Carolina.So when Remo got a message at the hotel desk telling him that his Aunt Millie was ill, he was surprised, because the message meant that Remo should stay where he was; Smith was on his way to see him.When Smith arrived at the Atlanta penthouse that evening, there seemed to be a small chill between Remo and Chiun, although the CURE director couldn't be sure.There often seemed to be some small roiling contention going on between them, but nothing he was ever allowed in on.On those few occasions when Smith mentioned it, Remo would be blunt and tell him it was none of his business.And Chiun would act as if the only important thing in the world was Smith's happiness, and that any friction between Remo and Chiun was "as nothing." But Chiun's apparent obsequiousness was really wind and smoke.It was even a more impenetrable wall than Remo's "None of your business."This evening, there was something to do with melons.Chiun was convinced that Remo had forgotten melons and Smith assumed it was Remo's failure to buy them at the store.Although Smith wasn't sure that they even ate melons anymore.They never seemed to eat anything.Page 27ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.htmlSmith opened his thin leather attach\a233 case whose innards were lined with lead to shield against any possible X rays.On a small typewriter keyboard, he punched in a code."Your fingers work with grace, O Emperor Smith," said Chiun."They're getting old," said Smith."Age is wisdom.In a civilized country, age is respected.Age is honored.When the elders tell of their traditions, they are treated with reverence, at least by those who are civilized."Smith nodded.He assumed that Remo had been failing to revere something.He was not going to ask.Remo lounged on a sofa wearing a T-shirt, slacks, and loose loafers with no socks.He watched Smith punch in the numbers.Smith had offered him one of those attach\a233-case computers once and said anyone could learn to use it.It could store information Remo might need, was not vulnerable to penetration because of the coding system, and could be used in conjunction with a telephone to get into the main computer system at Folcroft Sanitarium, where all CURE'S records were kept.Smith called it the most modern advance in computer technology.Remo refused it several times.Smith kept offering.Finally, when they met near a river one day in Little Silver, New Jersey, Remo accepted.He scaled the attach\a233 case like a piece of shale a quarter-mile down the river, where it sank without a trace."Why did you do that?" Smith had asked."I don't know," Remo had said."That's all? You don't know?""Right," Remo had said.Smith stopped offering technological assistance after that.Smith now closed the top of his attach\a233 case and looked across the room at Remo."What we have is a pattern.It's a pattern that has touched on something so frightening that we can't make head or tail of it," he said."So what else is new?" Remo asked."Any danger to the throne is a great danger," said Chiun.Remo knew that Chiun would automatically make anything Smith said into something of awesome proportions under the theory that in a peaceful kingdom, an assassin would starve.Like present-day lawyers, the Masters of Sinanju had learned through the ages that if the world was not fraught with peril, one had to do some intensive fraughting."We are facing a nuclear holocaust," Smith said
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